TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0224 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

|| 3.03 | THE GREAT ABNEGATION & SEARCH ||

Truth is covered by a golden vessel . The individual is cheated by the appearances of the forms of nature . The lifting up of this vessel and uncovering the Truth is the task of the seeker of perfection .

The fervour of a Nachiketas is expected in every spiritual aspirant .

" Ephemeral things are these that are of the mortal ! The vigour of all the senses they wear away . Even a long life is indeed very slight ! Thine be the vehicles , thine the dance and the song ! . . . What there is in the great Beyond — tell me about that ; nothing short of this does Nachiketas choose . " ( Katha Up , 1 . 26 , 29 )

TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0225 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The glorious aspiration for Truth which the characters of the Upanishads depict before us speaks of the grand perseverance of some of the souls in regaining the lost sovereignty , in recovering from the disease of life , in centring themselves in conscious plenitude , the birthless and deathless immeasurable Being .

TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0226 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

We hear of the admirable patience of the disciples in leading a hard and secluded life of absolute continence for years together for getting themselves initiated into this mysterious Truth of truths .

Indra remained with Prajapati , as a pupil , for one hundred and one years , after which was gotten the initiation from the teacher .

TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0227 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The nature of a total abnegation of the personal interests , a veritable destruction of oneself as it were , which is the prerequisite for the acquiring of Self-knowledge , reflects to us sufficiently the nature of the completeness of the Goal before us , of the freedom and joy that replaces the limited life of the individual .

TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0228 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Even Devarshi Narada’s knowledge is regarded by Sanatkumara as " mere name " , mere words .

Narada gives a long list of the branches of knowledge in which Narada has specialised , and implores Sanatkumara to teach Narada .

" Bhagavan , such a one , merely learned in sacred lore , I know not the Atman . It is already heard by me from people like you , Bhagavan , that one who knows the Atman crosses over sorrow . Such a one , Bhagavan , I am in sorrow . May Bhagavan take me , who am such a ( sorrowful ) one , across , to the other shore of sorrow . " ( Chh . Up , VII . 1 . 3 )

TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0229 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Even the highest intellectual perception belongs only to the realm of relativity .

No human being can claim to be omniscient and so one has no occasion to rejoice at one's profits or grieve at one's losses here .

The real is not this ; the attainment of That alone can liberate the soul from sorrow .

TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0230 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Even death is not a bar in the process of the realisation of Truth .

Death is a reshuffling of consciousness to adjust and adapt itself to a different order of life .

The love for the knowledge of the Self cares not for such insignificant phenomena as the birth and the destruction of the body .

TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0231 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The need for the higher illumination is more serious a matter than the birth and the death of the overcoat , and the quest for the Absolute should be undertaken even sacrificing the dearest object , fearless of even the greatest pain and loss that may have to be encountered in the world .

TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0232 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

It is a mistake to be interested in the different forms of perception , in the various categories of relative experience .

Nothing is worth a moment’s notice except the realisation of Brahman .

TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0233 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The most pleasant , the sweetest joy derived through contact of the subject and the object is only a womb of pain ; it has to be rejected for the sake of the Bliss that is true in the absolute sense.

" The good is one thing and the pleasant is another . . . Both the good and the pleasant come to a person . Examining the two , the wise person discriminates and chooses the good rather than the pleasant ; the dull-witted person chooses the pleasant and falls short of one's aim . " ( Katha Up , II . 1 , 2 )

TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0234 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The desire-centres shift themselves from one object to another and the pleasure-seeker is left ever at unrest .

The chain of metempsychosis is kept unbroken and is strengthened through additional desires that foolishly hope to bring satisfaction to the self .

TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0235 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Living in the midst of ignorance and darkness , conceited , thinking themselves learned , the deserted individuals seek peace in the objects of sense that constantly change their forms and natures .

The objective value in an object is an appearance , created by the formative power of the separative will to individuate and multiply itself through external contact .

TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0236 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The nature of that which is perceived is strongly influenced by the nature of that which perceives .

The moment the form of the desire is changed the object also appears to change itself to suit the requirements of the centre of consciousness that projects forth the desire .

Whatever we want , that alone we see and obtain .

TROTA | CHAPTER 3 | SEL0237 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Nothing else can exist in the objective universe corresponding to an individual’s experiences than what is demanded by the individual in its present stage of self-evolution in order to effect the necessary transfigurations in itself for the purpose of the realisation of a higher consciousness of existence .

A knowledge of this fact of life makes one wake up from one's slumber and strive to reach the culmination of experience where further transcendence of states ceases .